The Labs Are Busier Than Ever

In which the labs discover the limits of local control.

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done and where the promoters nearly fall on the floor.

We'll deal with the peripatetic, state-hopping activities of Discrimination Jeebus elsewhere in the shebeen, except to note that the legislature in the newly insane state of North Carolina is considering a bit of "religious liberty" offal that is substantially worse than the one that's brought chaos to Indiana and a social conscience to Walmart down in Arkansas. Meanwhile, Governor Pat McCrory already is hiding under his desk.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory weighed in Monday, telling a Charlotte radio talk show audience that the bill, sponsored by members of his own party, "makes no sense...What is the problem they're trying to solve?" McCrory said during an interview on WFAE-FM. "I haven't seen it at this point in time."

Oooh, oooh, call on me, Guv! I can help!

The Rev. Mark Harris, a Charlotte pastor who ran last year for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, said he was "highly disappointed" that McCrory did not see the benefit of having such a law in place before June, when many analysts are predicting the U.S. Supreme Court will rule same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. State religious freedom laws in North Carolina and elsewhere, said Harris, who leads First Baptist Church of Charlotte, "would protect Christians from governments eager to advance the agenda that sexual rights are superior to religious liberty." Asked for an example of what behavior such a law would protect, Harris and legislative sponsors of the bills referred to a florist in Washington state who was sued after she refused, on religious grounds, to sell and arrange flowers for a same-sex wedding.

The Rev's talking points must've blown off the porch. These laws are about Native Americans using peyote, and the right of Muslim prisoners to barber their beards according to their religious principles, and not in any way about allowing discrimination against your fellow citizens in private transactions.

God, let's find another issue. Quick. How about local control, and how government is best the closer it is to The People?

"These bills absolutely conflict with longstanding conservative principles of local control and self-determination," Luke Metzger, the founder and director of Environment Texas, told ThinkProgress. "Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, decrying federal preemption of state sovereignty on the one hand, while pushing one-size fits all mandates from Austin overriding local ordinances." Metzer said that the bills were primarily driven by Denton's vote to ban drilling, and that while the House Bill was changed to be less severe, it could "still could undermine many city ordinances." The House bill would only allow ordinances that regulate aboveground activity related to oil and gas operations, such as things relating to traffic, noise, lights, or "reasonable setback requirements," which dictate how far away drilling must be from buildings.

In the video, James Osborn pours three cups of water for the commissioners, then pours a brown liquid into each cup, asking them, "Would you drink it?"

This is the kind of citizen politics we need more of in this country. We certainly need it in Tennessee, where a state legislator broke new ground in constituent service.

"Senator, are you willing to give up your health insurance?" a protester asks in the video, taken in a corridor of the state capitol building 30 minutes after Tuesday's vote. Gardenhire responds, "Why don't you give it up, a——?" Protestors claim he said, "I'm not giving up, a—— !" Gardenhire is one of several state senators who voted against the measure who also receive state-subsidized insurance.

The video was taken by East Ridge resident Trae Haggard, who was in on the Hill to demonstrate in support of Insure Tennessee. "I was shocked he called a constituent that," Haggard said Wednesday. Asked Wednesday about the exchange, Gardenhire said he was angered after one of the protesters followed him into the bathroom. "When a guy follows you into the bathroom and starts shouting at you, he's lucky I only called him by his first name," Gardenhire said.

This whole fight involves the various elements of the political apparatus funded by the Koch Brothers, who really are only in public life for charity. It probably has something to do with why they also were dead set against Nashville's having a new bus system. Why they should care about health-care or rapid transit in Tennessee is beyond me, but I don't speak oligarch as well as I should.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where blog Consul General Friedman Of The Plains reports on how democracy works if you own enough politicians.

The lobbyists and an attorney representing the Consumer Energy Alliance, an energy industry group based in Washington, D.C., told councilors that state lawmakers will approve one of two bills currently before the Legislature. If the council failed to delay its vote on the local ordinance, the lawmakers would pass the bill that is more restrictive of cities' ability to regulate drilling, the councilors say they were told.

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